Chapter 36
Sai and Konton stood across from each other, simply staring down their opponent, for what seemed like a long time. Then Konton smiled.
"You think you can kill me? You? Kill me? The very idea is preposterous!" The demon emperor began to laugh. It was strong laugh, as though he was truly amused by Sai's threat. However, he soon turned back to Sai. His cocky smile was gone and replaced by a scowl. "No. No, I will kill you. You will by my trophy you miserable half-breed!" Sai's growl intensified, but then, after a moment, she stopped. She smirked, dismissed her blade, and flexed her claws. Konton couldn't believe his eyes.
"You're going to fight me without a weapon?" Konton asked, the amusement returning to his eyes, "Pride going to your head Saiai?"
"Not quite." Sai said in a low, threatening voice.
As the last syllable left her lips, Sai's eyes began to turn red. It was like blood was soaking into them. Purple demon markings appeared on her face while her claws and fangs began to elongate significantly. She lowered her head and allowed her hair to cover her face.
"You're purposefully entering into your full demon form?" Konton asked, unable to believe his eyes. Then he began to chuckle, "After all the trouble it caused you last time, you're going into it willingly this time. Are you that desperate? You are willing to risk your friends lives by letting your mind be taken over?"
"Wrong again bastard." Sai growled. She lifted her head revealing her face to a stunned Konton. The whites of her eyes now glowed a violent red, but the rest was still normal and golden.
"W-what?" Konton stammered, fear entering his voice, "What the hell are you?"
"Your worst nightmare." Sai growled. She raised her claws and got into an attack stance, " Now die!" At that instant, Sai moved forward faster than Konton could register. He barely had time to react and try to jump out of the way before Sai's claws came down and left a nasty gash across his right arm and chest. Konton stumbled as he landed away from the girl. Sai raised her claws to her mouth and licked some of the blood off of them. She smiled wickedly.
"Your blood tastes good for one that smells so foul." She said menacingly, "I guess I'll have to spill more of it. A lot more."
"Just try it half-breed!" He shouted, clutching his wounded chest.
"Gladly." At that moment, Sai essentially disappeared because of how fast she was moving. The demon emperor looked around confused.
"Behind you." Sai whispered roughly into his ear before stabbing her claws through the demon's stomach. Konton let out a grunt from the pain. Sai retracted her hand from his body and disappeared again. She reappeared an instant later in front of Konton.
"You ready to die?" Sai asked, smirking. He scowled back.
"You really don't get it do you?" He said, his voice struggling from the pain, "You cannot win."
"Doesn't seem that way to me right now." Sai told him.
"Hmpf! Ignorant half-breed! I cannot be killed while the one thing that allows humanity to function is still in my possession." He yelled at her, "How do you think I've been able to control these massive armies of people? It would be impossible if I didn't hold the one thing that makes pathetic mortals have hope and hang on to their worthless lives." Realization slammed into Sai harder than any punch she'd ever taken.
"You mean the embodiment of love." She said, unable to believe her stupidity.
"Ahh now the mutt understands." Konton said in a mocking tone, "Yes. I am unbeatable while it is in my possession. You may know where I keep it hidden, but I assure you that you will never obtain it. I keep it well guarded. No amount of force will ever be able to get to it. I cannot lose Saiai. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you can give up and stop struggling so hard to win an impossible victory. Then I can end your worthless lives." Sai lowered her head. She looked utterly dejected and beaten down. Her shoulders began to shake as though she were crying. Konton, thinking he had won, began to walk towards her. He drew his sword to end her life, but as he raised it to deliver the death blow, he heard it. Sai was laughing. It was quiet at first, but quickly became louder. Konton scowled.
"What's so funny girl?" He demanded.
"That you think that I, the daughter of the great Inuyasha, would give up so easily." She told him as she lifted her head to look the demon in the eyes, "Oh I'll kill you alright. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day. And when that day comes, I will enjoy watching you die slowly at my feet. You know why? Because I'm the only one that can kill you and I want to revel in that you evil bastard!" As she spat the last word out of her mouth she brought her claws around hard and slashed Konton deeply through the stomach.
"You damn miserable half-breed!" He spat send out a mist of blood from his mouth. Konton raised his arm to the sky and chanted something unintelligible. Suddenly brilliant flash of light erupted from his palm and engulfed the area. Sai was forced to cover her eyes to avoid being blinded. The light quickly faded and, after a moment, Sai looked up and began to curse bitterly. Konton was gone and had only left a circle of scorched earth and a lot of blood on the ground to show that he had even been there at all. That and his disgusting scent was everywhere.
Sai heard something move behind her and she whirled around, claws first, to face it. She was met by the surprised face of all of her friends.
"Nice to see you too..." Kaze said sarcastically.
"You're looking a little wild there Sai." Umi joked. Sai looked at her claws and realized that she was still in her demon state. She quickly released to energy and returned to normal.
"Sorry about that." Sai said sheepishly, scratching the back of her head.
"Don't worry about it." Kaze told her. He sniffed the air and looked over her shoulder with a concerned look, "Was he here?" Sai's face quickly became serious.
"Yeah. He was here." Sai said, anger seeping into her voice.
"He get away?" Akage asked. Sai nodded
"The bastard's got some sort of magic. It let him teleport out of here. Wouldn't have mattered anyway. It's not like I could have killed him." Sai spat.
"Why not Sai?" Nami asked, confused, "His blood is everywhere. I assume you were winning." Sai nodded again.
"I was." Sai told her, "I was destroying him. He never got a hit on me. Problem is that his life is sustained by the exact thing that we need to beat him and restore this land."
"The embodiment of love?" Umi asked.
"Yeah. The bastard is guarding it on the far eastern coast. He said that we may know where to find it, but that we'll never get it." Sai said.
"Well, we'll just have to prove him wrong then, now won't we?" Kaze said smirking, "And if I know my wife, she'll take this as a personal challenge and end up winning it in some brilliant fashion." This made everyone laugh, even Sai.
"And if I know my husband, he'll be right beside me to help." She said.
"Damn right." Kaze assured her. Sai nodded, took a deep breath, and changed the subject.
"So, what's happened with all of the soldiers?" She asked.
"Most are passed out. None of them have any demonic influence over them. They'll be fine and return home when they wake up." Akage explained.
"Though we might not want to be here when they do wake up." Nami pointed out, "They may not be under demonic influence anymore, but that influence had to take advantage of something to enslave them like this. All of these men were demon haters even before Konton came to them."
"True enough." Kaze agreed, "Let's get out of here." Sai, Akage, and Kaze proceeded to sprint away from the tent camp, while Nami and Umi climbed on Kirara to follow.
They met up again on the road a good mile away from the tent camp. It would be another hour or so before most of them woke up, but nobody wanted to take any chances. Now none of them seemed to know what to do. No one had any idea how to proceed. After a few moments, Kaze spoke up.
"So..." He began, "What now?" No one answered. Kaze sighed. "C'mon guys. We need to have some sort of plan."
"Can you or Sai smell a village from here?" Nami asked. Both of them sniffed the air, searching for the scent of civilization. Sai got it first.
"Yeah. If we keep traveling east, we'll run into one later today. My guess is that it's where those soldiers were headed. It smells like it's a large place." Sai told them. Kaze nodded his agreement.
"Alright then." Umi said, "I guess that's where we should go then." Everyone agreed and the half-demons took off down the road. Nami leaned forward and scratched Kirara's ears. She purred lightly at the attention.
"You ready to go Kirara?" Nami asked the cat demon who nodded in the affirmative and took off after the other three.
Sai had been right. They reached the village just as the sun began to set. It was beautiful and the group enjoyed it as they prepared to enter the village. Sai and Kaze both used their spiritual energy to suppress their demonic features while Nami did the same for Akage. Umi even managed to make Kirara look like a normal house cat.
"Damn that feels weird." Akage said as his hair turned black and his other features became distinctly human, "It definitely doesn't feel like that when it happens on the night of the new year." Sai and Kaze nodded their agreement. Then Sai realized what he had said.
"Wait, you're night is the night of the new year? How come you only have to go through it once a year, while Kaze and I have to do it every month?" She demanded. Akage shrugged.
"Don't know." He admitted, "It's the same for all phoenix half-demons. I think it's supposed to be symbolic or something."
"I guess I can understand that." Kaze said, "Rising from the ashes of the old year or something right?"
"Something like that." Akage agreed, "What's your night Kaze, now that you're a half-demon like us?"
"Kiretsu told me that it would be the night of the full moon. It's supposed to mirror Sai's so that I can be at my peak when she is at her weakest." Kaze explained, "Though, even as a human, I don't think anyone can call her weak." Sai smiled at this.
"Damn right. I'm still one of the most powerful priestesses ever while I'm human." She said proudly. This made everyone laugh, including Sai.
"So is everybody ready?" Umi asked after the laughter had calmed down. Everyone nodded their agreement and headed into the village.
Luckily for them, both Kaze and Sai maintained some of their sense of smell. The village had turned out to be a large town, but the two managed to lead them to one of the inns in the town before night fell. It wasn't anything large or fancy, but it would do. They entered and looked around. The main room was mostly empty. A few people were around and talking quietly. Eventually they found the innkeeper. He was an old man that looked extremely bored sitting against the wall talking to his wife. When he saw his new customers, he immediately took the opportunity to stop his conversation and talk to them.
"Welcome friends. Welcome to my humble inn. I am Kokoro. I assume that you are all here for a room for the night?" The man said.
"Yes, yes we are. I am Kaze and we could most certainly use a place to sleep." Kaze told the man. A look of recognition and surprise crossed the man's face. He smiled warmly.
"Ahh, I thought you would never get here my friends." He said warmly. Kaze looked to his friends in confusion, but they had the same confused looks on their faces, so he turned back to the innkeeper.
"You know us?" Kaze asked.
"One could say that." The man said, "I was told of your coming in a dream three nights ago. You looked somewhat different in the dream, but I did get the impression that you might look a bit different."
"You were told about us in a dream?" Sai said, clearly confused, "By who?"
"A man by the name of Mageru." The innkeeper said, "He told me that you were working against the empire, so that was enough for me to help you. You will stay here at my inn free for the night." This shocked everyone.
"Oh... Um..." Kaze stammered, not knowing what to say, "Thank you for your generosity."
"It is no problem friends. I shall have my wife take you to your rooms. There are three reserved for you. I'm assuming that you'll know who goes with who. Dinner will be brought to you soon." He said before walking over to get his wife, who had already found another person to enter into conversation with. Kaze looked back to his friends.
"Is this going to happen every time?" He whispered.
"I damn sure hope so." Akage whispered back, "It's not like we have a whole lot of money." Kaze nodded and turned back to the woman that was approaching them.
"Follow me please." The innkeeper's wife said as she continued walking off towards a hall of rooms. They were led to the final three doors and told to divide them amongst themselves. The woman clearly wanted to get back to whoever she was talking to before and hurried back down the hall. It didn't take them long to figure out who would room with who. Sai and Kaze took one. Nami and Akage took another, while Umi and Kirara took the last one.
Sai immediately took the opportunity to stretch out on the bedding and relax. It made Kaze laugh.
"Tired eh?" He commented.
"Just a little." Sai admitted, "Can't wait for dinner though."
"Yeah I'm starving." Kaze agreed as he sat down next to her and leaned his back against the wall. Suddenly a thought hit him that made him chuckle.
"Hey Sai?" He said.
"What is it?" She asked him, "What's so funny?"
"I was just thinking about our parents." Kaze told her, "Our relationship is a whole lot less complex." The thought made Sai laugh too.
"Yeah I guess so." Sai admitted, sitting up and snuggling up next to her husband. "But I kinda like it that way. I don't have to worry about you running off after some dead ex-girlfriend that you can't get over."
"I don't know Sai..." Kaze said mischievously, "Maybe you don't know me as well as you think." Sai rolled her eyes.
"Please, Kaze. Don't even try." She said laughing, "I've known you since I was born and been crazy about you for almost as long. I knew about any and every girl you ever even got close to." Kaze's eyes widened in surprise.
"Oh really?" He asked incredulously, "So you stalked me?"
"Yup." Sai said simply, "Got really good at it too. You're sisters helped a lot you know. I always got crazy jealous when there was another girl's scent on you. Probably still would actually." This made Kaze laugh. Sai joined him after a moment.
"What? Don't you trust me?" Kaze joked.
"Of course." Sai assured him, "I wouldn't have married you otherwise. That doesn't mean I can control what my demon blood feels. It's always going to assume that any unfamiliar female scent is someone trying to take you away from me. The same thing would happen to you if you smelled another guy's scent on me."
"I guess you're right." Kaze admitted, an idea forming in his mind, "If that happened, I guess I'd have to reestablish my scent on you. You know, mark my territory."
"Ooh. And how would you go about that husband?" Sai asked, giving him a sultry look.
"Well I guess I'll just have to show you." Kaze told her as he pulled her into his lap. Their lips met. Kaze deepened the kiss and tightened his embrace while Sai allowed his hands to explore. However, just as Kaze found the tie to Sai's kimono, they heard a knock at the door. They grudgingly broke away from each other.
"Damn." Kaze cursed softly, "Dinner just had to come now." Sai laughed.
"Don't worry about it." She told him, "We'll get back to this later. That's a promise." She winked and got up to answer the door.
"Yeah, but your scent is going to drive me insane before dinner is over." Kaze said softly. Sai still heard him and chuckled lightly before answering the door. It was the innkeeper's wife. She delivered the food before quickly leaving to deliver meals to the other two rooms.
Sai returned with the food and handed Kaze his portion. She quickly shed her human appearance. Kaze did the same.
"Glad we don't need to keep that up anymore." Sai said, relieved to finally feel herself again.
"Yeah." Kaze mumbled, "It's just gonna make your scent stronger and keep something else up." Sai burst into laughter at this. It took her awhile to calm down again.
"I told you. After dinner." She assured him, using her eyes to show her desire, "I promise, you're going to need the energy."
"I think I like the sound of that." Kaze said before digging into his food.
"Figured you would." Sai told him as she too began to eat.